MOSCOW (AP) 鈥� who criticized Moscow鈥檚 military action in Ukraine and tried to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the 2024 election, was convicted Friday of displaying 鈥渆xtremist symbols鈥� 鈥� an action that will keep him out of this year’s parliamentary race.
The charges against , 63, were based on a 2023 online interview in which he briefly showed a picture of the late opposition leader who at that time was serving a 19-year prison sentence on charges of extremism that were widely seen as politically motivated. Navalny in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024.
Nadezhdin rejected the case against him as absurd and argued authorities were trying to keep him from campaigning in September’s parliamentary vote. The court in Dolgoprudny, a town on Moscow鈥檚 northern outskirts where he lives, convicted him and ordered him to pay a fine of 1,000 rubles (about $13).
A week ago, Russia鈥檚 Justice Ministry named Nadezhdin as a 鈥渇oreign agent,鈥� a designation that carries strong pejorative connotations and brings additional government scrutiny. It also bars him from holding public office, but he was still able to wage his symbolic campaign for a parliament seat until Friday鈥檚 verdict.
Nadezhdin complained of feeling sick during Friday鈥檚 hearing, which was interrupted to let an ambulance team check his condition. Before the hearing, he said he was considering going abroad but was barred from leaving Russia.
In January 2024, Nadezhdin collected thousands of signatures as he openly called for a halt to But he was kept off the March 2024 ballot after that more than 9,000 signatures submitted by his campaign were invalid 鈥� enough to disqualify him. Putin faced only token opposition in the election and easily won a fifth term.
After the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, authorities ramped up their crackdown on dissent and free speech, relentlessly targeting rights organizations, independent media, members of civil society organizations, and some religious groups. Hundreds of people have been jailed and thousands of others have fled the country.
Another Putin critic is arrested
Also on Friday, Ilya Remeslo, a pro-Kremlin activist and blogger who has become a Putin critic, was arrested in St. Petersburg on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military 鈥� an accusation widely used against those who oppose the government’s policies.
The state Tass news agency reported that he would be taken to Moscow to face a court hearing.
In March, Remeslo criticized the military action in Ukraine and called for Putin’s resignation. Soon after, he was placed in a psychiatric clinic and spent a month there in what he cast as a punishment for his remarks.
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